Garlic – My Favorite Healing Herb
Lee Dobbins
Garlic is a wonderful healing herb and, unlike many of theother herbs, it tastes great and can be incorporated into avariety of meals. Garlic has been used for over 5000 years as ahealing herb and has strong antibacterial, and antiviralproperties. But it’s health benefits extend well beyond it’sinfection fighting properties. It is also reputed to help lowercholesterol and blood pressure as well as help protect againstheart disease and stroke.

And the benefits of garlic don't stop there. A recent study hasshown that taking a garlic supplement once a day can reduce therisk of getting a cold by 50% and help you gain a speedyrecovery if you do happen to catch one. In fact, I tried thisout recently when I felt a sore throat coming on – I toasted apiece of bread and added some raw crushed garlic to it. It wasa bit pungent but I woke up the next day good as new! Asidefrom colds, garlic has historically been used as a remedy forinfections, athletes foot, worms, respiratory ailments, somecancers of the stomach, colic, ear aches, bladder problems andhigh blood pressure.

Garlic is jut plain good for you too! it is loaded withvitamins and minerals including Vitamin A, B and C, selenium,potassium, calcium, zinc and magnesium. But in order to reapthe benefits, you must prepare it in a certain way. Researchers say it is the allicin that is released when garlic is crushed.If you are trying to serve yourself a garlic herbal remedy byadding garlic to your foods then make sure you crush it a bitahead of time and don't add until the final 5 minutes ofcooking. This will give the allicin enough time to develop andwill insure you don't cook all the garlic health out of it.

Cooked garlic will not have as much benefit as raw and wholegarlic cloves have little benefit at all. Another way toincorporate garlic into your meals without cooking is to make agarlic bread where you crush the gloves into a paste and toastbread - butter the toasted bread and spread the garlic on it -Yum!

Garlic can have an affect on blood clotting, so don't starttaking supplements unless you discuss it with your physicianfirst especially if you are on blood thinning medication or dueto have surgery in the near future.
About The Author: Lee Dobbins writes for pet and health relatedwebsites. Visit http://www.herbs-home-remedies.com for more onnatural home remedies and herbs. Don’t forget to check theirextensive article database athttp://www.herbs-home-remedies.com/index3.html